RESEARCH ARTICLES

General research and knowledge articles featuring a small portion of the many
research projects conducted with sound and vibration in highly unlikely situations
and purposes - these articles show the diversity and creative powers within our industry.

The bells that mirror the soul of Notre Dame

Sound artist Bill Fontana’s latest project, ‘Silent Echoes: Notre Dame’, finds him working in the bell towers of the fire-ravaged cathedral recording the haunting sounds of Notre Dame’s ten church bells, which survived the catastrophe. A livestream of his ‘intimate acoustic portrait of the bells’ will premiere at the Centre Pompidou in June and broadcast live to different museums around the world.

Tescia – nine questions for Philippe Potereau

The story behind the Tescia solution

Since starting work at Brüel & Kjær in 1997, Philippe Potereau has had several roles – Sales Engineer, Application Engineer, Sales Manager and, most recently, as Business Development Manager. As a result of his experience in these roles, Philippe has developed a passion and capability to manage customers and teams through the development of complex DAQ system projects, often but not exclusively within the aerospace industry.

Jude Mansilla - Fidelity Fights Back

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll remember when hi-fi meant sitting in front of two loudspeakers in a room, spending time dedicatedly listening to music – something many young people have never experienced. Today, premium audio increasingly means smart speakers, sound bars, and headphones. And nobody seems to sit anywhere for very long.

Five Questions for Niels-Jørgen

Born on the Danish island of Bornholm, Niels-Jørgen Jacobsen is Brüel & Kjær’s Product Manager for Structural Dynamics. This Wagner aficionado is also a self-confessed foodie with a dream of starting his own winery. He also runs marathons, believing that good health is synonymous with a good life.

Five Questions For Ricarda Nerche

A native of Dresden, Germany, 37-year old Application Engineer Ricarda Nerche lives in an old farmhouse with her husband, two daughters, four sheep and a cat.

Five Questions For Takeshi Nishikubo

49-year-old Takeshi Nishikubo is Country Manager for Brüel & Kjær Japan. He has accumulated immense experience of sound and vibration in the automotive industry, as well as fatigue and durability testing. In his spare time he likes playing golf, sightseeing, driving cars, exploring audio, enjoying wine, beer and sake – and reading Kotaro Isaka’s book ‘Audubon’s prayer’.

Universal Man - Interview With Trevor Cox

He writes academic books, carries out scientific research, presents TV documentaries, makes radio appearances, writes science books and presents science shows reaching 15,000 schoolchildren. Add to this a full time position as Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford and you have the multi-faceted, 49-year-old, Bristol-born, Trevor Cox.

Educator and Problem Solver

Growing up in Stockton, a city on the San Joaquin River in California’s Central Valley, Matt Allen’s passion for learning led to a career in research and education. Today, he’s still sharing knowledge and inspiring generations of engineers to come.

Five Questions For Sidnei Luis

37-year-old Brüel & Kjær Account Manager Sidnei Luis do Prado from São Paulo is a busy salesman, but when he does have time off, he spends it enjoying family life, reading, practicing photography and playing goalkeeper for a football team. His favourite culinary delights include wine, strong coffee, Brazilian barbecue and Italian cuisine.

Five Questions For Marty Alexander

Senior Sales Engineer and Telecom Audio Solution Manager Marty Alexander hails from Brooklyn, NY. He joined Brüel & Kjær at the age of 32, having been a noise and vibration consultant until then. Passions include classic rock and old British sports cars. He lives with his wife, Gabriela, and their neurotic dog, Chance.

Five Questions For Roger Williams

65-year old Roger Williams spent most of his childhood in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, North Wales. Today, Roger is a Senior Application Specialist at Brüel & Kjær, where he is transferring 45 years of consulting, development and practical experience into new NVH tools and solutions.

From atomic physics to aeroacoustic consulting hero

From Atomic Physics to Aeroacoustic Consulting - Interview With Paul Murray

Paul Murray is at the peak of a career that has taken him throughout the western hemisphere: from wind tunnel testing the Joint Strike Fighter to acoustic liner research on both sides of the Atlantic. Now based in Sussex and Southampton in the UK, he told us about his fascinating experiences so far.

Japanese Professor of Human Vibration

When a typhoon wreaked havoc during his formative years, Dr Setsuo Maeda altered the course of his career, resolving to help Japanese workers in the clean-up effort by reducing their vibration injuries. He went on to spearhead Japan’s adoption of ISO standardisation in the area, and now teaches a sought-after course that prepares Japanese students for the globalised world.We caught up with Dr Setsuo Maeda in his office at Kinki University, 560 km west of Tokyo in Osaka Prefecture. Surrounded by shelves of...

Finding Passion in The Perception of Acoustics - With Sunil Bharitkar

Growing up in Pune on the west coast of India, the young Sunil Bharitkar watched Indiana Jones movies and aspired to be an archaeologist. But a natural gravitation towards science and math combined with good grades, saw him follow in his father and older brother’s footsteps into the world of engineering.

Five Questions For Jason Kunio

BK Connect® Platform Product Manager Jason Kunio was born 15 miles west of downtown Chicago. Spare time is spent with his wife, three children and two rescue dogs, cycling with friends or watching his children compete in running races. A favourite indulgence is Lou Malnati’s sausage and garlic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza.

Five Questions for Thomas Lewien

Dr. Thomas Lewien founded Discom, provider of automotive production test systems, in 1995. His background in acoustics, NVH and signal processing, has resulted in 35 years of experience in developing electronics and software. His hobbies include photography, motorbiking, sailing and taking things apart to find out how they work.

Sounds Like Fun

Experimentarium is a Danish non-profit foundation whose sole purpose is to encourage people, particularly children, to develop an interest in the sciences and investigate how the world around them works.

The Conductor’s Point of View - Interview With David Chesky

At 58, David Chesky is a composer and musician whose commitment to sound is fanatic. After growing up among the Latin sounds of Miami, he moved to New York and found himself conducting orchestras in studios for films. His insights led him to set up a record label, and many Grammy award nominations later he’s leading the audiophile world with 3D binaural records and a secret technique perfected in churches and jazz clubs.

Women in Sound And Vibration

“It’s a man’s world,” they say, and looking at the statistics one would be tempted to agree.

Five questions for Dmitri Tcherniak

45-year-old Russian Dmitri Tcherniak is a Research Engineer specialising in structural dynamics and vibration, and is part of Brüel & Kjær’s Innovation group. He has an MSc in Naval Architecture and a PhD in Applied Mechanics from the Marine Technical University of St Petersburg.

Jet Engine Know-how Helps Voice Studies Take Off

Taking principles used to analyze jet engines, researchers are studying the mechanisms that generate the human voice. With precise sound mapping, they seek to understand the specific contributions of all the biological components to sound quality, pitch and strength, and find the origins of specific speech problems.

The Humble Guru of Structural Dynamics

A brilliant mathematician, the Vold in Vold-Kalman, developer of groundbreaking algorithms, patent holder, published author, award winner and former infantryman – the knowledge, skills, experience and achievements of this ´60% retired` 72-year-old Norwegian are endless.

There And Back Again - Jacob Kirkegaard Tale

Jacob Kirkegaard is a Danish sound artist and composer whose work has been presented across the world in galleries, museums, international art exhibitions and concert spaces, and is represented in the permanent collection of LOUISIANA – Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Jacob is also a founding member of the sound-art collective freq_out and the non-profit arts organization TOPOS. In 2016, Kirkegaard was the sound- artist-in-residency at St. John’s College, University of Oxford, UK. (Top graphic courtesy...

Sean Olive - Hooked on The Science of Sound

Audio guru Sean Olive grew up in Ontario, Canada, in a small city called Brockville, the gateway to the Thousand Islands. A musical childhood playing the piano, French horn and trumpet, and singing in a choir led to a music degree and a career dedicated to the perception and measurement of sound quality.

Cigar Box Instruments

Something to resonate, some string, an assortment of wood and you have an instrument.

Five Questions for Richard Johnson

71-year-old Business Development Manager Richard Johnson was born in Southend-on-Sea, England (home to the longest pleasure pier in the world). When not working, he enjoys sailing, gliding or spending time with his family, including four grandchildren, at his hideaway in Devon. He is passionate about solving problems.

Acoustic Sound Design: The Sound of Music

Yasuhisa Toyota studied acoustic design at the Kyushu Institute of Design, Japan. Today, he is one of the world’s leading acousticians as well as President of Nagata Acoustics America Inc.

Five Questions For Yumiko Sakamoto

35-year-old Yumiko Sakamoto from Tokyo, Japan, who once studied pipe organs, juggles two roles for Brüel & Kjær. She is both an Automotive Application Engineer and a Marketing Manager. Knitting is a great passion that sometimes continues well into the night. Her favourite book is the all-time Canadian classic, Anne of Green Gables.

Five Questions For Zhigang Chu

At 37, Zhigang Chu is not only a Chief Engineer of Technical Support Team with Brüel & Kjær China but also an Associate Professor at Chongqing University.

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